Smart optical input/output (i/o) extension for context-dependent workflows

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer program products for smart, automated capture of textual information using optical sensors of a mobile device are disclosed. The textual information is provided to a mobile application or workflow without requiring the user to manually enter or transfer the data without requiring user intervention such as a copy/paste operation. The capture and provision context-aware, and can normalize or validate the captured textual information prior to entry in the workflow or mobile application. Other information necessary by the workflow and available to the mobile device optical sensors may also be captured and provided, in a single automatic process. As a result, the overall process of capturing information from optical input using a mobile device is significantly simplified and improved in terms of accuracy of data transfer/entry, speed and efficiency of workflows, and user experience.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/979,949, filed Apr. 15, 2014, which is herebyincorporated by reference.

This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.No. 14/588,147, filed Dec. 31, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 14/176,006, filed Feb. 7, 2014 (now issued U.S.Pat. No. 8,958,605), which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. applicationSer. No. 13/948,046, filed Jul. 22, 2013 (now issued U.S. Pat. No.8,855,425), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/691,610, filed Nov. 30, 2012 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 8,526,739),which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/368,685, filedFeb. 10, 2009 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 8,345,981), each of which ishereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present inventive disclosures relate to input/output (I/O) usingoptical component(s) of mobile devices. More specifically, the presentconcepts relate to integrating optical input functions of a mobiledevice into output functions of the mobile device, and even morespecifically performing context-dependent integration of optical inputfrom a mobile device camera into textual output for a mobile workflow orapplication.

BACKGROUND

Mobile devices occupy an increasingly prominent niche in the evolvingmarketplace, serving as access points at various stages of conducting aseemingly infinite number of activities. As this trend continues, mobiledevices and mobile network capabilities provided thereby are leveragedin an increasing number and breadth of scenarios. Recent examplesinclude the extension of mobile technology to provide a host offinancial services such as check deposit, bill payment, accountmanagement, etc. In addition, location data gathered via mobile devicesare utilized in an increasing number of applications, e.g. to providetargeted advertising, situational awareness, etc.

As the mobile development community finds new utility for devices, usersare presented with more numerous, complex, and specific opportunities toprovide input required by or advantageous to the underlying process themobile device is utilized to perform. In addition, the context of thesituations in which a user may interact with, or provide input to, aprocess continues diversifying.

This diversification naturally includes expansion into niches where theimplemented technique may not necessarily be the most optimal or even anacceptable approach from the perspective of the user. In a culture wherea fraction of a second determines the difference between an acceptableand unacceptable solution to a given challenge, developers seek everypossible performance advantage to accomplish superior technology.

For example, several well-known inefficiencies exist with respect touser input received via a mobile device. A first inefficiency is smallscreen size typical to mobile devices, particularly mobile phones. Sincethe conventional “smartphone” excludes a physical keyboard and pointerdevice, relying instead on touchscreen technology, the amount ofphysical space allocated to a given key on a virtual “keyboard”displayed on the mobile device screen is much smaller than possible fora human finger to accurately and precisely invoke. As a result,typographical errors are common when considering textual user inputreceived via a mobile device.

In order to combat this limitation, typical mobile devices employpowerful predictive analytics and dictionaries to “learn” a given user'sinput behavior. Based on the predictive model developed, the mobiledevice is capable of predicting the user's intended input text when theuser's actual input corresponds to text that does not fit within definednorms, patterns, etc. The most visible example of utilizing such apredictive analysis and dictionary is embodied in conventional“autocorrect” functionality available with most typical mobile devices.

However, these “autocorrect” approaches are notorious in the mobilecommunity for producing incorrect, or even inappropriate, predictions.While in some contexts these inaccuracies are humorous, the prevalenceof erroneous predictions results in miscommunication and errors thatfrustrate the underlying process, the user, and ultimately defeat theadoption and utility of mobile devices in a wide variety of contexts towhich a mobile device could be leveraged for great benefit.

As a result, some developers have turned to alternative sources ofinput, and techniques for gathering input via a mobile device. Forexample, most solutions have focused on utilizing audio input as analternative or supplement to textual input (i.e. tactile input receivedvia a virtual keyboard shown on the mobile device display). In practice,this technique has conventionally been embodied as an integration ofvoice recognition functionality of the mobile device (e.g. as conferredvia a “virtual assistant” such as “Siri” on an APPLE mobile device (iOS5.0 or higher)).

The illustrative embodiment of this audio input extension being added toa mobile keyboard is demonstrated in the figure depicted below. Whilethis figure displays an interface generated using APPLE's iOS mobileoperating system, similar functionality may be found on other platformssuch as ANDROID, MICROSOFT SURFACE RT, etc. as well.

Audio input may be received via integrating an extension into the mobilevirtual keyboard that facilitates the user providing input other thanthe typical tactile input received via the mobile device display. In oneapproach, the audio extension appears as a button depicting a microphoneicon or symbol, immediately adjacent the space bar (at left). A user mayinteract with a field configured to accept textual input, e.g. a fieldon an online form, PDF, etc. The mobile device leverages the operatingsystem to invoke the mobile virtual keyboard user interface in responseto detecting the user's interaction with a field. The user thenoptionally provides tactile input to enter the desired text, orinteracts with the audio extension to invoke an audio input interface.In the art, this technique is commonly known as “speech-to-text”functionality that accepts audio input and converts received audio inputinto textual information.

Upon invoking the audio input interface, and optionally in response toreceiving additional input from the user via the mobile device display(e.g. tapping the audio extension a second time to indicate initiationof audio input), the user provides audio input, which is analyzed by themobile device voice recognition component, converted into text and inputinto the field with which the user interacted to invoke the mobilevirtual keyboard.

Via integration of audio input to the textual input/output capabilitiesof a mobile device, a user is enabled to input textual information in ahands-free approach that broadens the applicable utility of the deviceto a whole host of contexts otherwise not possible. For example, a usermay generate a text message exclusively using audio input, according tothese approaches. However, these approaches are also plagued bysimilarly-frustrating and performance-degrading inaccuracies andinconsistencies well known for existing voice recognition technology. Asa result, current voice recognition approaches to supplementing orreplacing textual input are unsatisfactory.

Voice recognition currently available is known for being subject tofailure—often the voice recognition software is simply incapable ofrecognizing the unique vocalization exhibited by a particularindividual. Similarly, voice recognition is prone to “audiographical”errors (i.e. errors analogous to “typographical” errors for audio input,such as falsely “recognizing” a vocalized word).

Furthermore, voice recognition is inherently limited by the existence ofa predetermined set of rules (e.g. a set of assumptions or conditionsthat may be defined based on the language being spoken). Further still,since usage often differs significantly between spoken and writtenversions of the same language, it may not even be possible to utilizeaudio input as a supplement or alternative to textual input. Forexample, audio input is often an unworkable alternative to tactile inputin circumstances where the expected form of expression and/or usage(which often define the “rules” upon which vocal recognition relies)correspond to the written form of a language.

Voice recognition is also an inferior tool to utilize for acquiring orvalidating user input corresponding to information not typically orcapable of expression in words. The prototypical example of theselimitations is demonstrable from the perspective of user input thatincludes symbols, such as often utilized to label units of measure. Evenwhere these units of measure have commonly-accepted vocalizations (e.g.the unit of currency known as “U.S. dollars” corresponds to the symbol“$”), these vocalizations are not necessarily unique usages of thecorresponding term (e.g. “pounds” may correspond to either a unit ofmeasuring weight, “lbs.” or a unit of currency, e.g. “£”, depending oncontext),

Voice recognition is also unsuitable for receiving and processingtextual input that includes grammatical symbols (e.g. one or more“symbols” used to convey grammatical information, such as a comma “,”semicolon “;” period “.” and etc.) or formatting input, which includessymbols that do not necessarily have any corresponding physicalrepresentation in the language expressed (e.g. a carriage return, tab,space, particular text alignment, etc.).

Other existing approaches include the use of optical input as asupplement to textual input, but these techniques merely present thecapability to combine textual input with an image or video clip, anddistribute the combined input via a user's preferred form ofcommunication (i.e. SMS text message, email, video chat, etc.). Theseconventional approaches typically include a combined input interfacethat facilitates receipt of tactile input via the mobile device virtualkeyboard, and optical input via a separate button placed on the inputinterface (but not necessarily included in the virtual keyboard as isthe case for audio input functionalities discussed above).

Upon the user interacting with this separate button, the devicefacilitates including previously-captured optical input or alternativelyinvoking a capture interface to capture new optical input and includethe previously- or newly-captured optical input in addition to anytextual information input by the user providing tactile input to themobile virtual keyboard.

As a result of the foregoing, existing optical and audio inputintegration via mobile devices is severely limited as a supplemental oralternative approach to receiving and processing user input via themobile device. Existing strategies allow cumbersome input of audio forvoice recognition, or input of an image to supplement textual input.However, these techniques fail to integrate these various inputcapabilities in a context-sensitive manner that provides an intelligentalternative and/or supplement to textual input via a mobile device.

Ensuring the additional input capability is invoked in a productivemanner that assists rather than degrades the performance of the deviceand the user's interactions therewith is a complex task, requiringcareful consideration of various contexts in which optical input wouldbe useful, and the appropriate conditions for capturing and/or analyzingthe optical input to accomplish the context-sensitive benefits offeredby intelligently integrating the mobile device camera as a source ofinput to receive textual information from the user.

Therefore, it would be highly beneficial to provide new methods, systemsand/or computer program product technologies configured to supplementand/or replace tactile and auditory input as a mechanism for receivinguser input and generating output, especially output that is determinedin whole or in part based upon the received input and context of thesituation in which input was received or the purpose for which the inputis provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates a mobile device user interface configured to receiveuser input, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 1B illustrates a mobile device user interface configured to receiveuser input, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method, according to one embodiment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a method includes invoking a user input interface ona mobile device; invoking an optical input extension of the user inputinterface; capturing optical input via one or more optical sensors ofthe mobile device; determining textual information from the capturedoptical input; and providing the determined textual information to theuser input interface.

In another embodiment, a method includes receiving optical input via oneor more optical sensors of a mobile device; analyzing the optical inputusing a processor of the mobile device to determine a context of theoptical input; and automatically invoking a contextually-appropriateworkflow based on the context of the optical input.

In yet another embodiment, computer program product includes a computerreadable storage medium having program code embodied therewith. Theprogram code is readable/executable by a processor to: invoke a userinput interface on a mobile device; invoke an optical input extension ofthe user input interface; capture optical input via one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device; determine textual information from thecaptured optical input; and provide the determined textual informationto the user input interface.

Other aspects and embodiments of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken inconjunction with the drawings, illustrate by way of example theprinciples of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is made for the purpose of illustrating thegeneral principles of the present invention and is not meant to limitthe inventive concepts claimed herein. Further, particular featuresdescribed herein can be used in combination with other describedfeatures in each of the various possible combinations and permutations.

Unless otherwise specifically defined herein, all terms are to be giventheir broadest possible interpretation including meanings implied fromthe specification as well as meanings understood by those skilled in theart and/or as defined in dictionaries, treatises, etc.

It must also be noted that, as used in the specification and theappended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include pluralreferents unless otherwise specified.

The present application refers to image processing of images (e.g.pictures, figures, graphical schematics, single frames of movies,videos, films, clips, etc.) captured by cameras, especially cameras ofmobile devices. As understood herein, a mobile device is any devicecapable of receiving data without having power supplied via a physicalconnection (e.g. wire, cord, cable, etc.) and capable of receiving datawithout a physical data connection (e.g. wire, cord, cable, etc.).Mobile devices within the scope of the present disclosures includeexemplary devices such as a mobile telephone, smartphone, tablet,personal digital assistant, iPod®, iPad®, BLACKBERRY® device, etc.

Of course, the various embodiments set forth herein may be implementedutilizing hardware, software, or any desired combination thereof. Forthat matter, any type of logic may be utilized which is capable ofimplementing the various functionality set forth herein.

One benefit of using a mobile device is that with a data plan, imageprocessing and information processing based on captured images can bedone in a much more convenient, streamlined and integrated way thanprevious methods that relied on presence of a scanner. However, the useof mobile devices as document(s) capture and/or processing devices hasheretofore been considered unfeasible for a variety of reasons.

In one approach, an image may be captured by a camera of a mobiledevice. The term “camera” should be broadly interpreted to include anytype of device capable of capturing an image of a physical objectexternal to the device, such as a piece of paper. The term “camera” doesnot encompass a peripheral scanner or multifunction device. Any type ofcamera may be used. Preferred embodiments may use cameras having ahigher resolution, e.g. 8 MP or more, ideally 12 MP or more. The imagemay be captured in color, grayscale, black and white, or with any otherknown optical effect. The term “image” as referred to herein is meant toencompass any type of data corresponding to the output of the camera,including raw data, processed data, etc.

As discussed herein, the term “voice recognition” is to be consideredequivalent to, or encompassing, the so-called “speech-to-text”functionality provided with some mobile devices (again, e.g. “Siri”)that enables conversion of audio input to textual output. By contrast,the inventive techniques discussed herein may be referred to as“image-to-text” or “video-to-text” functionality.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention my be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as “logic,” “circuit,” “module” or“system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take theform of a computer program product embodied in one or more computerreadable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodiedthereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an opticalstorage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readablestorage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store aprogram for use by or in connection with an instruction executionsystem, apparatus, processor, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband, as part of a carrier wave, an electrical connection having oneor more wires, an optical fiber, etc. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

An application may be installed on the mobile device, e.g., stored in anonvolatile memory of the device. In one approach, the applicationincludes instructions to perform processing of an image on the mobiledevice. In another approach, the application includes instructions tosend the image to a remote server such as a network server. In yetanother approach, the application may include instructions to decidewhether to perform some or all processing on the mobile device and/orsend the image to the remote site.

In one general embodiment, a method includes invoking a user inputinterface on a mobile device; invoking an optical input extension of theuser input interface; capturing optical input via one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device; determining textual information from thecaptured optical input; and providing the determined textual informationto the user input interface.

In another general embodiment, a method includes receiving optical inputvia one or more optical sensors of a mobile device; analyzing theoptical input using a processor of the mobile device to determine acontext of the optical input; and automatically invoking acontextually-appropriate workflow based on the context of the opticalinput.

In yet another general embodiment, computer program product includes acomputer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith.The program code is readable/executable by a processor to: invoke a userinput interface on a mobile device; invoke an optical input extension ofthe user input interface; capture optical input via, one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device; determine textual information from thecaptured optical input; and provide the determined textual informationto the user input interface.

In various embodiments, the presently disclosed methods, systems and/orcomputer program products may optionally utilize and/or include any ofthe functionalities disclosed in related U.S. Pat. No. 8,855,375, filedJan. 11, 2013, U.S. patent Ser. No. 13/948,046, filed Jul. 22, 2013;U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0270349, filed Mar. 13, 2013; U.S.Patent Publication No. 2014/0270536, Filed Mar. 13, 2014; U.S. Pat. No.8,885,229, filed May 2, 2014; and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/220,029, filed Mar. 19, 2014. Each of the foregoing patentapplications are herein incorporated by reference. For example, inseveral illustrative embodiments it may be advantageous to classify adocument from which textual information is to be obtained, to performdata extraction on a document to validate a document or informationextracted from a document, to subject image data to additionalprocessing (e.g. to improve image quality) before during or after thecapture operation, etc. as would be understood by one having ordinaryskill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.

Digital images suitable for processing according to the presentlydisclosed algorithms may be subjected to any image processing operationsdisclosed in the aforementioned Patent Application, such as pagedetection, rectangularization, detection of uneven illumination,illumination normalization, resolution estimation, blur detection,classification, data extraction, document validation, etc.

In more approaches, the presently disclosed methods, systems, and/orcomputer program products may be utilized with, implemented in, and/orinclude one or more user interfaces configured to facilitate performingany functionality disclosed herein and/or in the aforementioned relatedPatent Application, such as an image processing mobile application, acase management application, a classification application, and/or a dataextraction application, in multiple embodiments.

In still more approaches, the presently disclosed systems, methodsand/or computer program products may be advantageously applied to one ormore of the use methodologies and/or scenarios disclosed in theaforementioned related Patent Application, among others that would beappreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thesedescriptions.

It will further be appreciated that embodiments presented herein may beprovided in the form of a service deployed on behalf of a customer tooffer service on demand.

The presently disclosed inventive concepts concern the integration ofoptical input into the I/O capabilities of a mobile device in anintelligent manner that facilitates accurate and facile input of textualinformation. The exemplary scenarios in which these concepts will bemost applicable include inputting textual information to a document,form, web page, etc. as would be understood by one having ordinary skillin the art upon reading the present specification. Beneficially, thepresently disclosed techniques accomplish input of textual informationwithout suffering from the inherent disadvantages of utilizing audioinput (e.g. poor accuracy of voice recognition) or tactile input via avirtual mobile keyboard (e.g. inaccurate input due to small “key” size,improper “correction” using a predictive dictionary or “autocorrect”function, etc.).

Most notably, the present techniques provide superior performance andconvenience to the user. Superior performance includes features such asimproved accuracy and reduced input time (especially where the opticalinput depicts information suitable for use in multiple contexts orfields) of providing textual input via the mobile device. In part, theperformance benefits are due to the inventive approach disclosed hereinbeing configured to capture, analyze, and provide textual informationfrom optical input without relying on tactile feedback from the user. Asa result, these techniques are free from the disadvantages common to aninput interface that utilizes a miniaturized virtual keyboard asdescribed above.

Simultaneously, the present techniques offer superior performance overexisting integrations of optical input for use in combination withtextual input. For example, with reference to the conventional scenariodescribed above involving composition and dispatch of a messageincluding both textual input and optical input, the present techniquesadvantageously integrate the optical input capabilities of the mobiledevice with textual I/O such that a user need not provide tactile inputto convey textual information.

Moreover, the optical input may be captured, analyzed and converted totextual information in a context-dependent manner. Context-dependentinvocation, capture and an of optical input will be discussed in furtherdetail below.

Optical Input Extension for Mobile Virtual Keyboard User Interface (UI)

The presently disclosed optical input functionality is provided vialeveraging native tools, procedures, calls, components, libraries, etc.to capture optical input and tactile input according to the particularmobile operating system in which the functionality is included. In thismanner, the present techniques represent a seamless integration ofoptical input to contexts typically limited to capturing textualinformation via either tactile or audio input.

This seamless integration presents advantages over existing optical andtactile input capture capabilities native to the mobile operatingsystem, because those existing capabilities do not contemplate the useof optical input as an alternative or supplement to tactile input forthe purposes of capturing and providing textual information.

Most noticeably, even though a conventional mobile operating system mayprovide independent optical input capture capabilities and tactile inputcapture capabilities, no currently-known technique exists to integrateoptical input as a supplemental and/or alternative technique to receive,determine, and/or utilize textual information via a mobile device.

While rare, some mobile operating systems may further provide thecapability to analyze captured image data and identify, locate, and/orinterpret textual information depicted therein (e.g. via an opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) or other similar function as would berecognized by one having ordinary skill in the art). However, these rareembodiments do not present any integration of native OS capabilitiesthat allow a user to leverage the combined power of optical inputcapture and analysis to effectively accomplish inputting textualinformation via capturing the optical input.

For example, no presently known technique enables a user to inputtextual information e.g. into a field of a form, directly by capturingoptical input depicting identifiers comprising the desired textualinformation or other information that may be utilized to determine orobtain the desired textual information. “Other” information may includeany type of information that would be understood by one having ordinaryskill in the art upon reading the present descriptions as suitable oruseful to obtain or determine the desired textual information.

In general, identifiers suitable for extraction in the context of thepresent optical input extension and context-sensitive invocationapplications may include any type of identifying information (preferablytextual information) which may be useful in the process of performing abusiness workflow such as an insurance claim or application; anaccounts-payable process such as invoicing; a navigation process, acommunications process, a tracking process, a financial transaction orworkflow such as a tax return or account statement review; a browsingprocess; an admissions or customer on-boarding process, etc. as would beunderstood by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions. While suitable identifiers may generally includeany type of identifying information suitable in processes such as theexemplary embodiments above, it should be understood that several typesof information are particularly useful in select applications, e.g.unique identifiers that may be necessary to access a particular resourceor complete a particular workflow.

Thus, in various embodiments the extracted identifier preferablycomprises any one or more of a phone number, a complete or partialaddress, a universal resource locator (URL), a tracking number; avehicle identification number (VIN), vehicle make/model and/or year, asocial security number (SSN), a product name or code (such as auniversal product code (UPC) or stock keeping unit (SKU)) or othersimilar textual information typically depicted on an invoice; aninsurance group number and/or policy number, an insurance provider name,a person's name, a date (e.g. a date of birth or due date), a(preferably handwritten) signature, etc. as would be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the an upon reading the present descriptions.

Similarly, “other information” may be obtained or determined using anysuitable technique(s), including known technique(s) such as a lookupoperation, reverse lookup, authentication, etc. as would be understoodby one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading the presentdescriptions.

Rather, in order to accomplish this result using currently-availabletechniques, a user would need to perform a series of separate steps bymanually invoking separate functions of the native OS (e.g. as describedbelow with respect to the twelve-step conventional procedure requiredusing current technology).

By “extension,” the present disclosures refer to a functionality that isincluded in an otherwise-existing feature of the mobile device. Againwith reference to the exemplary scenario of receiving audio input inconjunction with or instead of tactile input, the microphone “button”depicted in the figures above may be considered an audio extension ofthe mobile virtual keyboard user interface. In contrast, a standaloneapplication, function, or feature that requires independent invocationby the user (e.g. invoking the application, function or feature withoutinteracting with one of the standard user interfaces provided with themobile operating system) is not to be considered an “extension” ofexisting capabilities.

In preferred embodiments, the optical input extension is configured tofacilitate a user seamlessly navigating throughout plural fieldspresented via a user interface (e.g. a web page, application, form,field, etc.) in the course of capturing optical input. In someapproaches, this functionality my be embodied as a “next” or “finished”button, gesture, symbol, option, etc. included with the optical inputcapture interface.

In practice, according to one illustrative scenario, a user may wish tocapture data corresponding to textual information intended for inputinto a plurality of different fields of a form, web page, etc. Inresponse to detecting the user's “focus” is on a data entry field (whichmay be a first data entry field among a plurality of such data entryfields present on the user interface), e.g. as indicated by clicking,tapping, hovering, selecting, tabbing, etc. to interact with the dataentry field, the native user input virtual keyboard interface includingthe optical input extension is invoked.

The user may interact with a first data entry field, invoke the opticalinput extension, e.g. by tapping a “camera” button displayed on thevirtual keyboard. In response to invoking the optical input extension,the user may be presented with a capture interface comprising a“preview” of the optical input being captured. (e.g. substantiallyrepresenting a “viewfinder” on a camera or other optical input device).Preferably, the “preview” and capture capabilities of the optical inputextension may be utilized without switching the mobile device focus fromthe browser, application, etc. upon which the data entry field the useris interacting with is displayed.

Put another way, the optical input extension of the virtual keyboardinterface described herein is preferably a seamless integration offunctionalities that enables a user to locate data entry fields, invokean optical input extension, capture optical input via the optical inputextension, and populate the data entry field(s) with textual informationdetermined from the captured optical input. Preferably, the entirety ofthe foregoing process is “seamless” in that the user may complete allconstituent functionalities without needing to utilize, e.g. via amultitasking capability of the mobile device, or using a clipboardconfigured to “copy and paste” data between independent applicationsexecutable on the mobile device, etc. as would be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.

In scenarios where the browser page, application, etc. with which theuser is interacting includes multiple data entry fields, the user maypreferably navigate between the multiple data entry fields utilizing anadditional functionality provided via the optical input extension. Inthis manner, the user may selectively utilize the optical inputextension to input textual information via capturing optical input for adesired subset of the total number of data fields presented. Similarly,the user may utilize the optical input extension to input textualinformation in any number of the multiple data entry fieldssequentially.

Preferably, user navigation among multiple data entry fields isaccomplished via a button or gesture with which the optical inputinterface is configured. Exemplary embodiments may employ, for example,a “next” and/or “previous” button, or be configured to interpret one ormore swipe(s) or multi-touch gesture(s) to navigate among the multipledata entry fields. Even more preferably, the optical input interfacealso includes a functionality via which the user may terminate orotherwise indicate completion of the optical input capture process. Forexample, in some embodiments the optical input interface may include a“last” button, a “finished” or “done” button, etc. to enable the user toterminate the optical input capture process, and preferably to resumeinteraction with the browser page, application interface, etc.

Accordingly, in at least some embodiments, a critical functionality ofthe presently disclosed inventive concepts is that the optical inputcapability is integrated directly into an existing interface providedwith the mobile operating system. The optical input capability isspecifically integrated into the native virtual keyboard user interfaceprovided with the mobile operating system as an extension of thatvirtual keyboard user interface.

The present techniques are therefore to be distinguished from approachesthat might seek to ineffectively “stitch” together existing capabilitiessuch as conveyed via separate (i.e. not integrated) mobile device cameraand virtual keyboard user interface components. For example, techniquesthat simply leverage a combination of tactile input and optical input asreceived via entirely separate interfaces, functions, applications, etc.complicate, rather than facilitate, ease and accuracy of input.

For instance, a standalone application or function configured to captureoptical input and analyze that optical input to determine the presenceof textual information (and optionally to determine and/or output thedepicted text) is incapable of performing such capture and/or analysisof the optical input in a context-dependent manner. For example, thestandalone application, function, feature, etc. is not configured toyield desired textual information in the context of a particular fieldor form displayed, for example, on a website the standalone application,function, feature, etc. is not configured to render in the first place.

As a result, a user would have to invoke several independent processes,and engage in the full course of conduct required by each. For example,without the presently disclosed integration of optical input and tactileinput, a user attempting a similar process using conventional technologywould need to engage in an overly-cumbersome and significantly inferiorprocess involving separate operations performed using multipleindependent processes individually installed, configured, invoked andoperated by the user.

The exemplary conventional process referred to above proceedssubstantially as follows:

-   (1) invoke a mobile web browser application (e.g. Safari for iOS);-   (2) navigate to a web page requiring textual information, using the    mobile device web browser-   (3) close or suspend the mobile browser application;-   (4) invoke a separate optical input functionality (e.g. a “camera”    application);-   (5) capture optical input including desired textual information via    the separate optical input application;-   (6) close or suspend the optical input application;-   (7) invoke a separate optical analysis application (e.g. an OCR    application);-   (8) analyze captured optical input to determine textual information    depicted therein using the separately optical analysis application;-   (7) locate the desired textual information from among the determined    textual information;-   (8) select the desired textual information from among the determined    textual information (or equivalently deselect, delete, or otherwise    discard any undesired textual information);-   (9) copy the desired textual information (e.g. to a mobile device    “clipboard” or equivalently simply via the user memorizing the    desired textual information); and-   (10) close or suspend the optical analysis application;-   (11) invoke or resume the closed/suspended web browser application    (if the web browser was closed rather than suspended, navigating to    the web page as in step (2) above must also be repeated); and-   (12) paste (or otherwise reproduce) the desired textual information    in an appropriate field of the web page from step (2), above.

The foregoing scenario involving use of multiple independent processesmay not even be possible, e.g. if a particular mobile device does notsupport the requisite multitasking capabilities or has insufficientsystem resources to effectively “switch” between independentapplications required to accomplish the desired result.

For comparison, an exemplary process utilizing an integrated opticalinput and tactile input functionality via an optical input extension toa virtual keyboard user interface would be substantially more efficient(both with respect to consumption of system resources as well as fromthe perspective of the user's convenience and time, as illustratedaccording to one embodiment in method 200 of FIG. 2.

Method 200 may be performed in any suitable environment, including thosedepicted in FIGS. 1A-1B, and any other suitable environment that wouldbe appreciated by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon readingthe present descriptions.

In operation 202, a user input user interface (UI) is invoked on amobile device.

In operation 204, an optical input extension of the user input UI isinvoked.

In operation 206, optical input is captured via one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device.

In operation 208, textual information is determined from the capturedoptical input.

In operation 210, determined textual information is provided to the userinput UI.

Method 200 may include any one or more additional or alternativefeatures as disclosed herein. In various approaches, method 200 mayadditionally and/or alternatively include functionality such asselective identification, normalization, validation, and provision oftextual information from the optical input to the user input UI.

The user input interface is preferably invoked in response to detectinga user interaction with an user interface element configured to receivetextual information. In such approaches, the method may advantageouslyinclude analyzing the optical input to determine the textualinformation. Accordingly, the analyzing may include one or more ofperforming optical character recognition (OCR); identifying desiredtextual information among the determined textual information based onthe OCR; and selectively providing the desired textual information tothe user input interface.

Preferably, the desired textual information includes a plurality ofidentifiers, and each identifier corresponds to one of a plurality ofuser interface elements configured to receive textual information. Insome embodiments, some or all of the identifiers include textualinformation required by one of the user interface elements. Thus, it isadvantageous to determine which of the identifiers include such requiredtextual information and selectively provide each correspondingidentifier to the appropriate user interface element, preferably in theproper format.

It is highly beneficial to the overall user experience to providefunctionality for automatically correcting OCR errors, e.g. to ensureaccurate reproduction of captured content, and ensure proper formattingof the information in the manner expected by the workflow. Therefore, itis advantageous in some approaches for the method to include one or moreof validating and normalizing at least one of the identifiers to conformwith one or more of an expected format of the desired textualinformation and an expected range of values for the desired textualinformation.

Validation, in various approaches, may include determining one or moreof reference content from a complementary document and business rulesapplicable to at least one of the identifiers. This determination ispreferably based on the element corresponding to the identifier(s), andthe validating is based on one or more of the reference content and thebusiness rules. Similarly, normalization may include determiningformatting from a complementary document, business rules, and/or theelement invoked by the user.

In more embodiments, the method may also include one or more ofvalidating (i.e. checking for accuracy of content and/or format, e.g.against reference content) and normalizing (i.e. modifying format orpresentation to match expected format or other business rules, etc.) thedesired textual information to conform with either or both of anexpected format of the desired textual information and an expected rangeof values for the desired textual information. This facilitatescorrecting OCR errors to ensure accurate reproduction of capturedcontent and proper formatting of the information in the manner expectedby the workflow. In some embodiments, the validating and the normalizingare based on one or more of reference content from a complementarydocument and business rules. Thus, the method may also includedetermining one or more of the complementary document and the businessrules based on the element with which the user interacted.

In some approaches, the optical input extension is presentedsimultaneous to presenting the invoked user input interface. Preferably,the user input interface comprises a virtual keyboard displayed on themobile device, which includes a camera button displayed on the virtualkeyboard.

The method may additionally and/or alternatively include automaticallyinvoking an optical input capture interface in response to detecting theinvocation of the optical input extension.

In various embodiments, the method may additionally and/or alternativelyinclude preanalyzing the optical input prior to capturing the opticalinput. Preanalyzing includes operations such as: detecting an objectdepicted in the optical input; determining one or more characteristicsof the object depicted in the optical input; and determining one or moreanalysis parameters based at least in part on the determinedcharacteristic(s). The one or more analysis parameters preferablyinclude OCR parameters.

While the foregoing examples are set forth with reference to a userinteracting with a mobile browser, those having ordinary skill in theart will appreciate that in principle the presently disclosed inventiveconcepts are applicable to any user interaction with any data entryfield, whether presented via a mobile browser, mobile device operatingsystem functionality, third party application, native OS application,etc, in various embodiments.

As demonstrated according to the exemplary scenario above, the presentlydisclosed techniques can reduce the number of individual actionsrequired to accomplish a superior result by a factor of at least two.When considering the additional advantages discussed below with respectto context-dependent invocation, capture and analysis of optical input,skilled artisans will appreciate the significant benefits conferred bythe inventive techniques discussed herein as opposed to utilizingconventional techniques that may be capable of accomplishing one or moreconstituent actions described in the present disclosures but areabsolutely incapable of conveying the performance advantages achieved byintegrating these functionalities into a unified procedure with superiorcapabilities and performance characteristics.

Context-Dependent Invocation, Capture and Analysis of Optical Input

In preferred approaches, the presently disclosed inventive optical inputtechniques may leverage contextual information concerning the optical ortextual information, the data input operation; the form, field, or etc.into which the data are to be input; etc. as would be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.

It may be especially advantageous to capture textual information of acertain type using optical input as opposed to textual input.Contextually-advantageous selection of optical input as the preferredform of input data may include preferentially capturing optical inputwherever conventional tactile or audio input would be problematic.

For example, where textual information does not follow any establishedconvention or set of rules (e.g. as typically utilized by a predictivedictionary) then attempting to input the textual information via tactileor audio input (e.g. “typing” on the mobile device virtual keyboardinterface, reading or reciting the textual information, etc.) iserror-prone. The predictive dictionary or vocal recognitionfunctionality may improperly “correct” or interpret the input providedby the user in an attempt to enforce one or more of the inapplicableconventions or rules.

In more embodiments, optical input may be preferred where a large volumeand/or complex collection of textual information is required. Forinstance, if a user engaging in an activity via their mobile devicewishes to complete a form having several fields requesting differenttypes of textual information, and some or all of the textual informationare depicted on one or more documents, then it may be advantageous todetermine or obtain the textual information via capturing optical inputcomprising an image of the document depicting that textual information,rather than requiring the user to manually input each individual pieceof the desired textual information.

Similarly, it may be advantageous to analyze optical input according tothe context thereof. For example, in one approach a user may utilize adocument as a source of textual information to be provided via opticalinput. The document may take any form, and may exhibit uniquecharacteristics that are indicative of the document belonging to apredetermined class of documents (e.g. a credit card, credit report,driver's license, financial statement, tax form, etc. as would beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions). Further still, due in whole or in part to theseunique characteristics, it may be advantageous to analyze optical inputdepicting documents belonging to the predetermined class usingpredetermined analysis parameters, settings, techniques, assumptions,etc. that are known to yield ideal analytical results for that class ofdocument.

For example, it may be advantageous to analyze optical input usingpredetermined settings known to yield particularly preferable resultsfor documents depicting textual information haying a particular colorprofile, a background having a particular color profile, especially ifsuch color profile is anon-standard not black-and-white) color profile.

Similarly, if a document class is characterized by known dimensions, aknown orientation, a known layout or organization of the textualinformation, etc. it may be advantageous to utilize analysis parameters,settings, etc. configured to produce superior analytical results forthat layout, organization, orientation, etc.

In addition, it may be advantageous to utilize unique analysisparameters configured to analyze textual information represented in aparticular font or style, e.g. utilizing known characteristics of thatfont such as average character width, height, expected dimensions foreach possible character, etc, as would be understood by one havingordinary skill in the art upon reading the present disclosures.

In various embodiments, the predetermined analysis parameters, settings,techniques, etc. employed preferably include one or more OCR parameters,settings, techniques, etc.

Accordingly, it may be even more preferable in some scenarios to includefunctionality configured to perform pre-analysis of the optical inputpresented to the mobile device optical sensor(s) prior to capturing theoptical input. For example, in preferred embodiments upon invoking acapture interface (whether automatically, in response to user inputdictating invocation of the capture interface, or otherwise) the mobiledevice may determine characteristics of the optical input, including butnot limited to whether the optical input comprises an identifiableobject or object(s), and ideally an identity or classification of anysuch detected object(s). Based on the determination reached by thispre-analysis, predetermined capture settings known to yield idealoptical input for subsequent analysis may be employed.

In more approaches, the optical input may be analyzed based oncontextual information determined from or based on the web page,application, form, field, etc. with which the user interacts to invokethe user input interface (e.g. virtual keyboard and/or optical inputextension(s) thereof, in various embodiments). For example, and as willbe appreciated by skilled artisans, existing techniques allow a userinterface to restrict input a user may provide to the user interface,e.g. by selectively invoking a restricted input interface (e.g. aninterface consisting of numerical characters for inputting a date ofbirth or social security number, an interface consisting of alphabeticcharacters for inputting a “name”, etc.).

In a similar manner, the presently described optical input extension mayinfluence, determine, or restrict the analytical parameters employed toanalyze optical input captured using the extension. In the exemplaryscenario where analysis includes optical character recognition, forinstance, analytical parameters employed for a field accepting onlynumerical characters may include an OCR alphabet that is restricted tonumerals, or conversely to an OCR alphabet restricted to letters for afield accepting only alphabetic characters. In preferred approaches, theoptical input extension may automatically and transparently define theanalytical parameters based on the type, format, etc. of acceptableinput for a given data entry field, and the defining may be performeddirectly in response to receiving instructions identifying a type ofacceptable input for the particular field upon the user interacting withthe data entry field. To illustrate, in a scenario where, for example, auser interacts with a fillable data entry field expecting a telephonenumber as input. Whereas according to the conventional example the userinteracting with this data entry field is presented with a keyboardconsisting of numerals 0-9, according to the presently disclosedinventive concepts a user interacting with the same data entry field andutilizing an optical input extension as described herein may employanalytical parameters including an OCR alphabet being limited tonumerals 0-9.

In the illustrative scenario according to the foregoing embodiments, auser may navigate to a webpage, form, mobile application, etc. using amobile device. The user may interact with one or more fillable fieldspresented on the web page, a navigation bar of the web browser, or anyother element of the medium with which the user is interacting thataccepts textual information as suitable input. In response to detectingthis interaction, and/or in response to input from the user, the mobiledevice may invoke an optical capture interface substantiallyrepresenting a “camera” application, e.g. as typically included innative OS functionality provided with conventional mobile devices.

Upon invoking the optical capture interface, the mobile device displayrepresents a “viewfinder” depicting the mobile device optical sensor'sfield of view, preferably in real- or near-real time. The mobile device,either in response to user input or (preferably) in an automatic mannertransparent to the user, may perform pre-analysis as described aboveutilizing optical input received by the mobile device optical sensor(s)(e.g. the optical input utilized to generate the viewfinder display).

In particularly preferred approaches, the pre-analysis may includeidentifying any textual information depicted in a portion of the opticalsensor's field of view (e.g. a bounding box) and displaying a preview ofany identified textual information. Even more preferably, identifiedtext may be displayed in the data entry field with which the userinteracted to invoke the user input interface and/or optical inputextension thereof.

In more approaches, the presently disclosed methods, systems, and/orcomputer program products may be utilized with, implemented in, and/orinclude one or more user interfaces (UIs) configured to facilitatereceiving user input and producing corresponding output. The user inputUI(s) may be in the form of a standard UI included with a mobile deviceoperating system, such as a keyboard interface as employed with standardSMS messaging functionality and applications, browser applications,etc.; a number pad interface such as employed with standard telephonyfunctionality and applications, or any other standard operating systemUI configured to receive user input, particularly input comprising orcorresponding to textual information (i.e. user input comprising taps onvarious locations of a screen or speech which will be converted totextual information).

For instance, and as shown in FIG. 1A, user input UI 100 includes anavigation 110, a form or page 120, and a keyboard UI 130. Each UI 110,120, 130 may be standard UIs provided via a mobile device operatingsystem, standard browser or mobile application included with the mobiledevice operating system, or may be provided via a separately installed,standalone application. Standalone application embodiments are preferreddue to the ability to efficiently integrate context-dependentfunctionality and capture/extraction functionality in a seamlessworkflow and user experience.

With continuing reference to FIG. 1A, in the context of the presentapplication a workflow facilitated via the user input UI 100, thenavigation UI 110 includes a navigation component 112 such as an addressbar of a mobile browser, forward and/or back buttons (not shown) toassist navigating through various stages of the workflow, etc. as wouldbe understood by one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions.

Form/Page 120 of the workflow includes a plurality of fields 122-128which are preferably configured to receive as input a plurality ofidentifiers (optionally normalized and/or validated as described herein)output from a capture and extraction operation of the workflow. As shownin FIG. 1A, the fields include a City field 122, a Zip Code field 124, aPhone Number field 126 and a State field 128. Of course, additionalfields may be included in the form/page 120 and the user may navigatearound the form/page 120 to selectively display the various fieldsthereof using any suitable technique that would be appreciated by aperson having ordinary skill in the art upon reading the presentdescriptions.

Moreover, each field may be associated with an expected format and/orvalue or range of values for textual information received as inputthereto. For example, City field 122 may expect a string of alphabeticcharacters beginning with a capital letter and followed by a pluralityof lowercase letters, optionally including one or more spaces or hyphencharacters but excluding numerals and other special characters.Conversely, Zip Code field 124 may expect a string of either fivenumerals or ten characters including numerals and an optional hyphen orspace. Zip Code field 124 may further expect the ten-character string toobey a particular format, such as “#####-####”. Similarly, Phone Numberfield 126 may expect seven numerals and optionally one or more spaces,parenthesis, periods, commas, and/or hyphens. Phone number field 126 mayalso expect the textual information input therein to obey a maskcorresponding to one of several standard phone number formats, such as“(XXX) ###-####” in the United States, or other corresponding knownconventions depending on the locality in which the device is being used.State field 128 may expect a two-character string of capital letters. Ofcourse, other fields may be similarly associated with expected format(s)and/or value(s) or ranges of values according to known conventions,standards, etc. associated with information intended for receipt asinput thereto.

A user may interact with one of the fields 122-128 using any suitablemeans, e.g. via tapping on a region of the mobile device displaycorresponding to the field, and in response the keyboard interface 130may be invoked. Alternatively, keyboard interface may not be invoked ifthe field does not accept user-defined textual information, e.g. in thecase of a drop-down menu field such as State field 128. For fields whichdo accept user-defined textual information, a user's interaction withthe field may be indicated by presence of a cursor 121. The user'sinteraction with a particular field may also invoke or schedule acontext-dependent component of the workflow, e.g. a component configuredto apply particular business rules, perform validation, documentclassification, etc. as described in further detail herein.

The keyboard interface 130 may selectively include alphabetic characterset (e.g. as shown in FIG. 1A in response to user interaction with Cityfield 122) or a numerical/symbolic character set (e.g. as shown in FIG.1B in response to user interaction with Zip Code field 124), based onthe context of the field interacted with by the user (e.g. the expectedvalue or value range of textual information input to the field).Preferably, keyboard interface 130 includes a plurality of keys 132configured to facilitate the user “typing” textual information into thefields, as well as a function button 134 configured to execute one ormore operations using an 110 component of the mobile device, such as amicrophone and/or camera of the mobile device.

Upon invoking keyboard interface 130, and as represented in FIG. 1A, afunction button 134 of the keyboard interface 130 (e.g. a buttoncommonly associated with a voice capture or speech-to-text function, asshown in FIG. 1B) may be interacted with by the user to invoke anoptical input extension of the mobile application or workflow. Inpractice, the optical input extension invokes a capture interface andinitiates a capture and extraction operation (optionally includingvalidation, classification, etc.) as described in further detail below.

Additionally and/or alternatively, the optical input extension may bedisplayed separately from the keyboard interface 130, e.g. as a separatebutton 136 within form/page 120 as depicted generally in FIG. 1B.

In one approach, an image of a document may be captured or received bythe mobile device, and an image processing operation such as opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) may be performed on the image. In moreapproaches, a user hovers the mobile device over a document andidentifiers are extracted via OCR directly from the video feed withoutrequiring a separately invoked capture operation. Based in whole or inpart on the OCR results, an identifier, and preferably a uniqueidentifier, may be extracted from the image.

Normalization, Validation

The extracted identifier may be compared with reference content oranalyzed in view of one or more business rules. The reference contentand/or business rules are preferably stored locally on the mobile deviceto facilitate efficient comparison and/or analysis, and may be providedin any suitable form.

In myriad approaches, reference content may take the form of acomplementary document to the document from which the identifier is tobe extracted. Complementary documents may include a document, file, orany other suitable source of textual information against which a simplecomparison of the extracted identifier may be performed. For example, ina preferred approach a mobile application includes a data store havingone or more complementary documents therein, each complementary documentcorresponding to at least one identifier or type of identifier utilizedin one or more workflows of the mobile application.

The complementary document may comprise identifiers, e.g. as may beobtained and stored in the data store based on previous capture andextraction operations using the mobile application. Advantageously, thecomplementary document may comprise a processed image of a documentdepicting the identifier, said processing being configured to improvethe quality of the image for purposes of data extraction (e.g. viacustom binarization based on color profile, correction of projectiveeffects, orientation correction, etc.). The document image may serve asa validation tool to ensure accuracy of an identifier extracted from adocument imaged in subsequent invocations of the mobile application orparticular workflows therein. Of course, similar functionality may beachieved when the complementary document comprises simply a validatedidentifier, e.g. a string of characters, symbols, of an identifier thatare known to be accurate.

In additional and/or alternative embodiments, business rules mayindicate an expected format of the extracted identifier, and may furtherinclude rules regarding how to selectively extract the identifier (e.g.using OCR parameters based on a particular color profile of thedocument, OCR parameters that restrict a location within the documentfor which the identifier is searched), and/or modify the extractedidentifier to fit the expected format, for example using a mask, aregular expression, modifying OCR parameters such as via changing an OCRalphabet to exclude certain symbols or character sets, etc. as would beunderstood by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions.

In one approach, business rules may indicate that only a portion ofinformation properly considered an identifier within the scope of thepresent disclosures is needed or desired in the context of a particularworkflow. For instance, a workflow may require only a zip code of anaddress, only the last four digits of a social security number or creditcard number, only a month and year of a date, only a portion of a lineitem on an invoice, such as a price or product code but not both, etc.as would be understood by a person haying ordinary skill in the art uponreading the present descriptions.

A particularly advantage of utilizing business rules with the presentlydisclosed inventive concepts is that the particular business ruleapplied to a particular extraction operation may be context sensitiveand thus automatically determine appropriate business rules to apply toan extraction attempt.

To account for, and automatically correct, OCR errors, in someapproaches the extracted identifier may be corrected. For instance,preferably the extracted identifier is corrected using the textualinformation from the complementary document and/or predefined businessrules.

Predefined business rules, in this context, may preferably includebusiness-oriented criteria/conditions for processing data, such assetting a threshold for the acceptable amount of mismatch to whichcorrection may be applied (e.g. correction may be applied to mismatchesof less than a maximum threshold number of characters, a maximumpercentage of characters, etc., corrections may only be applied tomismatches fitting within a predefined set of “acceptable” errors e.g. anumber “1” instead of a letter “l” and vise-versa, including dash(es)“—” instead of hyphen(s) “-”, etc.) and other similar business-orientedcriteria/conditions as would be understood by one having ordinary skillin the art upon reading the present descriptions.

Additionally and/or alternatively, an extracted identifier may bemodified. For example, discrepancies arising from OCR errors may beautomatically handled using the present techniques. In one embodiment,according to business rules, an identifier is expected to be in apredetermined format. For instance, in the context of a tender documentsuch as a credit card, the identifier may be an account number expectedin a 16-digit numerical format substantially fitting“####-####-####-####” as seen typically on conventional credit/debitcards, or an expiration date in a “MM/YY” format, etc. as would beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions.

In more embodiments, the extracted identifier may be accuratelyextracted, but nonetheless be presented in a different format thanexpected (e.g. the identifier may include or exclude expected symbols orformatting, such as spaces, dashes, or impermissible characters (e.g. amonth designation in a date, such as “Jan” or “January” includingalphabetic characters where the expected format is strictly numerical,such as “01”).

Discrepancies of this nature may be automatically resolved by leveragingdata normalization functionalities. For example, in some approacheswhere an extracted identifier comprises a date, there are a finite setof suitable formats in which the date data may be expressed, such as 01January, 2001; January 01, 2001, 01/01/01, Jan. 1, 01, etc. as would beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions. Other types of identifier data may similarly beexpressed in a finite number of formats, including account number (e.g.conventional 16-digit account numbers in the format ####-####-####-####,#### #### #### ####, ################, etc.), cardholder name (e.g.Last, First; Last, First, Middle Initial (MI); First Last; First MI.Last; etc.), security code (e.g. either a three-digit or four-digitnumber, an alphanumeric string including both letters and numbers,etc.), etc. as would be understood by one having ordinary skill in theart upon reading the present descriptions.

Based on business rules defining an expected format or finite set ofpossible formats for the identifier data, the presently disclosedtechniques may be configured to automatically normalize data obtained(e.g. via extraction) from the imaged financial document in a mannerthat the data obtained from the financial document matches an expectedformat of corresponding data, e.g. contained/depicted in textualinformation of the complementary document. For example, upon determiningthat extracted data such as a date is in a particular format (e.g. Jan.01, 2001) other than an expected format (e.g. MM/YY), it is advantageousto convert the extracted data from the particular format to the expectedformat, enabling facile and accurate matching between the identifierdata derived from the image and the corresponding textual informationfrom the complementary document.

In other instances, it may be advantageous to utilize an iterativeapproach to achieve data normalization. For example, in one embodiment afirst iteration operates substantially as described above—extracting anidentifier from an image of a document and comparing the extractedidentifier to corresponding data from one or more data sources (e.g. thetextual information from the complementary document, database record,the predefined business rules, etc.). However, the first iterationcomparison fails to yield any match between the extracted identifier andthe corresponding data from the data source(s). In some approaches, themismatches may be a result of OCR errors rather than true mismatchbetween the identifier on the imaged document and the corresponding datafrom the one or more data sources.

OCR errors of this nature may be corrected, in some approaches, bydetermining one or more characteristics of data corresponding to theidentifier. In one embodiment, the first OCR iteration may extract theidentifier in an unacceptable format (e.g. the data is not properlynormalized) and/or perform the OCR in a manner such that the extractedidentifier contains one or more OCR errors. As a result, the extractedidentifier fails to match any corresponding data in the one or more datasources, despite the fact that the “true” identifier as depicted on thedocument actually matches at least some of the corresponding data. Falsenegative results of this variety may be mitigated or avoided bymodifying parameters, rules and/or assumptions underlying the OCRoperation based on identifier characteristics.

For example, in one embodiment an identifier is extracted, and comparedto corresponding data from one or more data sources. The string ofcharacters comprising the extracted identifier docs not match anyaccount number in the corresponding data. In response to failing toidentify any corresponding data in the data sources, the extractedidentifier is further analyzed to determine characteristics thereof.

In one approach, the extracted identifier may be compared to a pluralityof predefined identifier types (e.g. “First Name,” “Last Name,” “AccountNumber,” “expiration date,” “PIN,” etc.) to determine whether theextracted identifier exhibits any characteristic(s) corresponding to oneof the predefined identifier types. For example, the extractedidentifier and the predefined identifier types may be compared todetermine the existence of any similarities with respect to dataformatting and/or data values.

Exemplary identifier characteristics suitable for such comparison, insome approaches include string length, string alphabet, (i.e. the set ofcharacters from which the identifier may be formed, such as“alphabetic,” “numeral,” “alphanumeric,” etc.), presence of one or morediscernable pattern(s) common to identifiers of a particular type, orany other characteristic that would be recognized by a skilled artisanreading these descriptions. In a preferred approach, identifiercharacteristics may include any pattern recognizable using knownpattern-matching tools, for example regular expressions.

Additionally and/or alternatively, the identifier type may be determinedin whole or in part based on one or more document characteristics, suchas: a location in the document from which the identifier is extracted; aclassification of the document from which the identifier is extracted(such as disclosed in related U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/802,226, filed Mar. 13, 2013, published as U.S. Patent PublicationNo. 2014/0270349 on Sep. 18, 2014, and herein incorporated byreference); and/or characteristic(s) of data located adjacent, above,below, or otherwise spatially proximate to the identifier on thedocument, etc. as would be understood by skilled artisans upon readingthe instant descriptions. For example, in a preferred embodimentidentifier characteristics may be determined based on a location fromwhich an identifier is extracted being located below data depictingrelated information, such as an identifier being located below a streetaddress line, which typically corresponds to a city, state, and/or zipcode, particularly in documents depicting a mailing address. In anotherpreferred embodiment, identifier characteristic(s) may be determinedbased on an identifier being extracted from a location horizontallyadjacent to related data, for example as is the case for an expirationdate or account number, respectively, as depicted on typical credit anddebit card documents.

In one illustrative approach, an extracted identifier is analyzed, anddetermined to have characteristics of a “payment amount” identifiertype. In particular, the extracted identifier: exhibits one or more ofthe characteristic “payment amount” string length (e.g. six characters);string alphabet (e.g. letters, numerals, and currency symbols); and/orpattern (e.g. a currency symbol character such as “$”, “£”, or “

” followed by two numeral characters, a decimal or period symbol “.” andtwo additional numeral characters, e.g. “$19.99” “£10.00” or “

01.23”, etc.) In other approaches, the identifier may be determinedexhibit characteristics such as consisting of characters expressed onlyin numerical digits, such a street or room number of an address, etc.

Upon determining the identifier characteristics, the extractedidentifier may be analyzed to determine whether any convention(s) orrule(s) describing the identifier characteristics are violated, whichmay be indicative of the extracted identifier including OCR errors,improper data normalization, or both, in various approaches. In oneexample, an extracted identifier fails to match any of the correspondingdata in the one or more data sources based on a first comparisontherebetween. In response to the matching failure, the extractedidentifier is analyzed and determined to be of an identifier type“account number,” based at least in part on the extracted string beingsixteen characters in length. The extracted identifier is furtheranalyzed and determined to violate an “account number” characteristic.The analysis reveals that while account number strings consist ofnumeral characters, the extracted identifier includes a non-numeralcharacter, e.g. because one character in the extracted identifier stringwas improperly determined to be a letter “B” instead of a numeral “8,” aletter “l” instead of a numeral “1”, a letter “O” instead of a numeral“0,” etc. as would be understood by one having ordinary skill in the artupon reading the present descriptions.

The OCR error may be corrected using a second OCR iteration based atleast in part upon establishing the identifier characteristic(s). In theforegoing example of an account number erroneously including analphabetic character instead of a numeral, the OCR engine my berestricted to an alphabet of candidate characters consisting entirely ofnumerical digits. The decision to restrict the OCR alphabet, in turn, isbased on predefined business rules applying to the format of the accountnumber, i.e. that the account number consists of numerical digits. Thesecond iteration, accordingly, properly recognizes the “8” numeral inthe identifier, rather than the “B” letter erroneously determined fromthe first iteration. Preferably, the identifier complies with at leastone business rule, such as described above. More preferably, thebusiness rule(s) may be expressed as at least one logical expression(e.g. a rule, formula, a pattern, convention, structure, organization,etc. or any number or combination thereof).

Those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that similarbusiness rules may inform an OCR process regarding how to define theextracted identifier string in a variety of situations differing fromthe numeral/character distinction exemplified above.

For example, in one embodiment a business rule may indicate that aparticular alphabet of symbols should be used, e.g. as opposed to a morecomplete or different alphabet of symbols. The business rule indicatesan account number follows a convention including hyphen symbolcharacters, i.e. “-”, but excludes dash symbol characters (i.e. “—”),underscore symbol characters (i.e. “_”) and space characters (i.e. “ ”).Accordingly, if a first iteration does not successfully extract anidentifier matching corresponding data, e.g. in the complementarydocument, a second iteration may be performed using a more restrictedalphabet to normalize the extraction results according to theexpectations reflected in the business rule(s).

Exemplary Context-Dependent Workflow Use Cases

For example, a user working within a mobile application or workflow mayinteract with a field of the application, a webpage, etc. and based onthe particular field, a unique business rule may be applied to asubsequent capture and extraction task. For example, afield requesting aZIP code (e.g. field 124 of FIG. 1A) may indicate or invoke a businessrule where the extracted identifier should have a format of five (ornine) digits, all characters should be numerical (or include hyphens),and alphabetic characters adjacent to a five (or nine) number stringshould not be included in the extracted identifier. Thus, the user'sinteraction with the particular field can provide context-sensitivedetermination of the proper business rule to apply in a subsequentcapture and extraction of an identifier from a document.

In this manner, a user could selectively capture only the ZIP code froma document depicting a full street address, and populate the ZIP codefield of the corresponding mobile application or workflow, all withoutproviding any instruction to the mobile application or workflow andwithout having to input any textual information to the field.

Similarly, business rules may be based partially or entirely on contextof the document in view of the mobile application or workflow. Forexample, in a similar situation as described immediately above a usermay interact with a field of a form or web page expecting a ZIP code.However, the form or page also includes other fields requestingdifferent information, such as a phone number, city and state of anaddress, name, social security number, expiration date, credit cardnumber, etc. The fact that the field with which the user interacted ispart of a form/page requesting other information that is likely to be ona single document (e.g. a. driver's license, utility bill, credit card,etc.) may invoke a business rule whereby a subsequent capture andextraction operation attempts to extract multiple identifiers andpopulate multiple fields of the form in a single process, even thoughthe user may not have interacted with the other fields. To be clear,this constitutes the context of the workflow as in the example aboverather than context of the document.

To determine document context, upon invoking the capture interface adocument within the viewfinder may be analyzed to determine the type ofdocument, in one approach. Based on this determination the multipleidentifier extraction and field population process may be performed(e.g. if the document type is a type of document likely to containmultiple identifiers corresponding to the multiple fields) orcircumvented (e.g. if the document is not an appropriate type ofdocument to attempt multi-extraction because the document type typicallydoes not depict information corresponding to the other fields on theform/page).

In this manner, it is possible to leverage context of both the mobileapplication/workflow, e.g. as indicated by the user's interaction with afield, as well as the context of the document from which the identifieris being extracted. Advantageously, this dual-context approach enablesan optical input-based autofill functionality without relying on anyprior data entry. Autofill can be performed on first capture in anear-real time.

In a preferred approach, a user may capture an image of one or moredocuments. The image is preferably captured using a capture component(e.g. “camera” as described above) of a mobile device by invoking thecapture interface via an optical I/O extension (e.g. extension 134 or136 of FIGS. 1A and 1B, respectively). The captured image may beoptionally stored to a memory, e.g. a memory of the mobile device, forfuture use and/or re-use as described herein. Notably, other embodimentsof the present disclosures also encapsulate scenarios where a documentimage is not captured, but otherwise received at a device (preferably adevice having a processor, such as a mobile device) for subsequent usein extracting and/or validating information depicted on or associatedwith the document (e.g. a corresponding identifier depicted on adifferent document).

The image of the document is analyzed by performing OCR thereon. The OCRmay be utilized substantially as described above to identify and/orextract characters, and particularly text characters, from the image.Even more preferably, the extracted characters include an identifierthat uniquely identifies the document. The identifier may take anysuitable form known in the art, and in some approaches may be embodiedas an alphanumeric string of characters, e.g. a tender document accountnumber (such as a 16-digit account number typically associated withcredit/debit card accounts), a security code (such as a CCV code on adebit/credit card, a scratch-off validation code, a personalidentification number (PIN), etc.) an expiration date (e.g. in theformat “MM/YY”), etc. as would be understood by one having ordinaryskill in the art upon reading the present descriptions.

The presently disclosed techniques may leverage a number of advantageousfeatures to provide a document owner with useful information and/orservices regarding their document. For example, and optionally takinginto account contextual information such as a mobile application runningon the mobile device, data may be automatically provided to the mobileapplication without requiring the user to input any textual information,thus avoiding time consuming processes, user error, predictivedictionary bias, and other problems common to conventional, user-basedtextual input for mobile devices.

For instance, in one embodiment a mobile application, which may be astandard browser displaying a particular web page, a standaloneapplication, etc., includes a workflow configured to facilitate a userapplying for automobile insurance. The workflow may include fieldsrequesting information such as the applicant's name, driver licensenumber, vehicle make, model, and/or year, state of residence, etc.

Based on a user invoking one of the fields of the mobile application,and/or based on the user invoking an optical input extension (e.g.extension 134 as shown in FIG. 1A or extension 136 as shown in FIG. 1B)of a keyboard or other user input interface (e.g. UIs 110, 120, 130 asshown in FIG. 1A) displayed via the mobile device, a capture interfacesuch as a viewfinder is invoked on the mobile device.

The capture interface may include a prompt directing a user to captureimage(s) of one or more documents, a driver license and vehicleregistration, depicting some or all of the information requested for thefields of the workflow. Preferably, the capture interface is configuredto automatically detect a document depicted in the viewfinder, andcapture an image thereof when optimal capture conditions (e.g.illumination, perspective, and zoom/resolution) have been achieved. Theviewfinder may include a reticle, such as four corners arranged in arectangular fashion to facilitate capturing an image of the entiredocument, a rectangular box to facilitate capturing a line, field, etc.of textual information depicted on the document, etc. as would beunderstood by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon reading thepresent descriptions. The reticle is preferably configured to assist auser in orienting the device and/or document to achieve optimal captureconditions.

More preferably, the capture operation is contextually aware tofacilitate accurate and precise extraction of identifiers from thedocument, as well as accurate and precise output of correspondingtextual information in the fields of the workflow. The correspondingtextual information may be identical to the extracted identifier(s), ormay be normalized according to an expected format and/or to correct OCRerrors, in various approaches. In more approaches, the identifiers maybe validated against reference content or business rules as described infurther detail herein, to facilitate precise, accurate extraction andoutput.

In some approaches, the document may be analyzed and classified todetermine the context of the document and/or determine whether toattempt a multi-field extraction operation, as described further herein.

Context-Sensitive Process Invocation

In more embodiments, it would be advantageous to automatically invokeone or more contextually-appropriate processes based on optical inputreceived via the mobile device optical sensors.

In general, such a process may be represented graphically as shown inFIG. 3, method 300, according to multiple embodiments. Method 300 may beperformed in any suitable environment, including those shown in FIGS.1A-1B, and any other suitable environment that would be appreciated by aperson having ordinary skill in the art upon reading the presentdescriptions.

As shown in FIG. 3, method 300 includes operations 302-306. In operation302, optical input is received via one or more optical sensors of amobile device, such as occurs when a viewfinder interface is invoked anda video feed depicting the field of view of the mobile device opticalsensor(s) is displayed.

In operation 304, the optical input is analyzed using a processor of themobile device to determine a context of the optical input.

In operation 306, a contextually-appropriate workflow is invoked basedon the context of the optical input.

The context may include any suitable information relevant to performingoperations within the corresponding workflow, and preferably comprisesone or more of: a type of document represented in the optical input; andcontent of the document represented in the optical input.

Where the context includes the document type, preferably the type ofdocument is selected from a group consisting of: a contract, a tenderdocument, an identity document, an insurance document, a title, a quote,and a vehicle registration. Where context includes document content,preferably the content is selected from: a phone number, a socialsecurity number, a signature, a line item of an invoice, a partial orcomplete address, a universal resource locator, an insurance groupnumber, a credit card number, a tracking number, a photograph, and adistribution of fields depicted on the document.

In one approach, a user may position a document depicting a signature,such as a driver's license, personal or business check, contract, etc.within range of the mobile device's optical sensors. The mobile devicemay detect the presence of the signature, preferably in conjunction withone or more other identifying characteristics (e.g. a photograph on thedriver's license, a particular font such as magnetic ink characterrecognition fonts on a check, a distribution of fields on a form, etc.)of the document and automatically or semi-automatically invoke anappropriate mobile application on the mobile device. Additionally and/oralternatively, within a particular mobile application acontext-dependent business process or workflow may similarly be invoked.

Different information may indicate the proper workflow to invoke iseither an insurance quote, a health care admission process, a signingceremony, a deposit, or any combination thereof. A driver license numberand vehicle identification number may indicate propriety of anautomobile insurance quote. A health insurance provider name,policyholder (patient name) and/or group number may indicate proprietyof the health care admission workflow or a health insurance quoteworkflow, alternatively. A document containing textual informationcommon to a loan agreement such as a mortgage or loan application, inconjunction with a signature or signature block may indicate proprietyof a signing ceremony workflow. A document including a signature andaccount number or deposit amount may indicate propriety of a depositworkflow. Of course, the presently disclosed inventive concepts may beapplied to other workflows as would be understood by a person havingordinary skill in the art upon reading the present disclosure, withoutdeparting from the scope of the instant descriptions.

For example, in response to detecting the signature and the photograph,a mobile application may invoke an insurance quote workflow tofacilitate a user obtaining automobile insurance. In response todetecting the signature and particular font, a mobile check depositworkflow may be invoked. In response to detecting the signature and thedistribution of fields, a mortgage application process or documentsigning ceremony process may be invoked. Similarly, if not alreadyoperating from within a mobile application, the mobile device may invokean application configured to facilitate the contextually-appropriateaction such as described above, in various embodiments.

Other examples of context-sensitive process invocation may include anyone or more of the following. In response to detecting a documentdepicted in view of the mobile device optical sensors is an invoice(e.g. by detecting presence of the word “invoice,” an invoice number, aknown service-provider entity name, address, etc.), invoking a systems,applications, products (SAP) or other similar enterprise application andautomatically displaying a status of the invoice.

In response to detecting textual information depicted in view of themobile device optical sensors is a phone number, a phone application ofthe mobile device operating system may be invoked, and the number may beautomatically entered and/or dialed.

In response to detecting textual information depicted in view of themobile device optical sensors is a universal resource locator, a webbrowser application of the mobile device may be invoked, and the URL maybe entered into the navigation or address bar, and/or the browser mayautomatically direct to resources indicated by the URL.

In response to detecting textual information depicted in view of themobile device optical sensors is a credit card number, a financialservices application or credit card company website may be invoked (viaa browser in cases where a website is invoked) and a credit accountstatement, balance, due date, etc. may be displayed to the user.

In response to detecting textual information depicted in view of themobile device optical sensors is a social security number, a taxpreparation application or website may be invoked.

Of course, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in theart upon reading the present descriptions, the inventive conceptsdisclosed herein may be employed to any suitable scenario,implementation, application, etc. that involves the use of optical inputas a source of textual information. In particularly preferredapproaches, a user input UI of a workflow may be contextually invokedbased on optical input in the mobile device's field of view, and anyappropriate information also within the mobile device field of view isautomatically captured and output into an appropriate field of theinvoked UI with appropriate formatting and any OCR errors alreadycorrected.

While several exemplary scenarios have been set forth above toillustrate the concepts and features of the inventive subject matterdisclosed herein, those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat these concepts are equally applicable to any number of similarscenarios, implementations, practical applications, etc. For instance,while some examples described herein may have been presented from theperspective of a user interacting with a web page and desiring to inputtextual information depicted on a document into a fillable field of thatweb page, the inventive subject matter discussed above is equallyapplicable to any similar or equivalent scenario that would beappreciated by skilled artisans reading these disclosures. For example,the present subject matter may be equally applied to any situationinvolving a user inputting textual information via a virtual keyboarduser interface, such as a user composing an email, interacting with anapplication, etc.

While the present descriptions have been made with primary reference tomethods, one having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theinventive concepts described herein my be equally implemented in or as asystem and/or computer program product.

For example, a system within the scope of the present descriptions mayinclude a processor and logic in and/or executable by the processor tocause the processor to perform steps of a method as described herein.

Similarly, a computer program product within the scope of the presentdescriptions may a computer readable storage medium having program codeembodied therewith, the program code readable/executable by a processorto cause the processor to perform steps of a method as described herein.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. For instance, any equivalent of an embodiment disclosedherein that would be appreciated by a person having ordinary skill inthe art upon reading these disclosures should be understood as includedwithin the scope of the inventive concepts described herein. Similarly,these inventive disclosures may be combined in any suitable manner,permutation, synthesis, modification, etc. thereof that would beappreciated by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon readingthese descriptions.

Thus, the breadth and scope of an embodiment of the present inventionshould not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the followingclaims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: invoking a user inputinterface on a mobile device; invoking an optical input extension of theuser input interface; capturing optical input via one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device; determining textual information from thecaptured optical input; and providing the determined textual informationto the user input interface.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein the user input interface is invoked in response to detecting auser interaction with an user interface element configured to receivetextual information.
 3. The method as recited in claim 2, furthercomprising: analyzing the optical input to determine the textualinformation, wherein the analyzing comprises: performing opticalcharacter recognition (OCR); identifying desired textual informationamong the determined textual information based on the OCR; andselectively providing the desired textual information to the userinterface.
 4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the desiredtextual information comprises a plurality of identifiers, eachidentifier corresponding to one of a plurality of user interfaceelements configured to receive textual information, and wherein theproviding further comprises selectively providing each of the pluralityof identifiers to the corresponding user interface element.
 5. Themethod as recited in claim 4, further comprising one or more ofvalidating and normalizing at least one of the identifiers to conformwith one or more of an expected format of the desired textualinformation and an expected range of values for the desired textualinformation.
 6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprisingdetermining one or more of reference content from a complementarydocument and business rules applicable to at least one of theidentifiers, wherein the determining is based on the elementcorresponding to the identifier(s), and wherein the validating and thenormalizing are based on one or more of the reference content and thebusiness rules.
 7. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprisingone or more of validating and normalizing the desired textualinformation to conform with one or more of an expected format of thedesired textual information and an expected range of values for thedesired textual information.
 8. The method as recited in claim 7,wherein the validating and the normalizing are based on one or more ofreference content from a complementary document and business rules. 9.The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising determining one ormore of the complementary document and the business rules based on theelement with which the user interacted.
 10. The method as recited inclaim 1, wherein the optical input extension is presented simultaneousto presenting the invoked user input interface.
 11. The method asrecited in claim 1, wherein the user input interface comprises a virtualkeyboard displayed on the mobile device, and wherein the optical inputextension comprises a camera button displayed on the virtual keyboard.12. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising automaticallyinvoking an optical input capture interface in response to detecting theinvocation of the optical input extension.
 13. The method as recited inclaim 1, further comprising pre-analyzing the optical input prior tocapturing the optical input, wherein the preanalyzing comprises:detecting an object depicted in the optical input; determining one ormore characteristics of the object depicted in the optical input; anddetermining one or more analysis parameters based at least in part onthe determined characteristic(s).
 14. The method as recited in claim 13,wherein the one or more analysis parameters comprise OCR parameters. 15.A method, comprising: receiving optical input via one or more opticalsensors of a mobile device; analyzing the optical input using aprocessor of the mobile device to determine a context of the opticalinput; and automatically invoking a contextually-appropriate workflowbased on the context of the optical input.
 16. The method as recited inclaim 15, wherein the context comprises one or more of: a type ofdocument represented in the optical input; and a content of the documentrepresented in the optical input.
 17. The method as recited in claim 16,wherein the type of document is selected from a group consisting of: acontract, a tender document, an identity document, an insurancedocument, a title, a quote, and a vehicle registration.
 18. The methodas recited in claim 16, wherein the content is selected from: a phonenumber, a social security number, a signature, a line item of aninvoice, a partial or complete address, a universal resource locator, aninsurance group number, a credit card number, a tracking number, aphotograph, and a distribution of fields depicted on the document. 19.The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the workflow comprises one ormore of an insurance quote, a health care admission process, a signingceremony, and a deposit.
 20. A computer program product comprising: acomputer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith,the program code readable/executable by a processor to: invoke a userinput interface on a mobile device; invoke an optical input extension ofthe user input interface; capture optical input via one or more opticalsensors of the mobile device; determine textual information from thecaptured optical input; and provide the determined textual informationto the user input interface.